While they are still around without ticks bothering you, you had better make the best of the time(before April and before hot season).

Is it 3 hours drive from you? Would you give the direction ? If it is 3 hours east of you, that would be manageable for me

Hi Daniel,

I think you mixed up Tom's first post with mine. He's 3 hrs north of me. The rookery is in the NW Chicago Suburbs.
Too bad, It would have been nice to get together compare notes. Maybe some of your BIF skills would rub off. . .:-)

Took this last spring when these things were out in force! This is a wood tick that don't carry that much disease, but the deer ticks that are much smaller carry all sorts of nasty things.

I just hate having them crawl all over me waiting to dig in and have lunch.

I just checked and there is a rookery about thirty miles from here at Crex Medows which I will check out if the water ever thaws out and there is some open water.

Hi Tom,

It's the deer ticks and Lyme's Disease in particular that I am worried about, but parasites in general cause a sense of disgust for me. I'm unfortunately one of those "high risk patients" that you read about when they talk about new diseases that are going around. . .:O

The standing water around here is still frozen over for the most part -- especially the shallow lakes and ponds -- we had a late very hard freeze that's superceded the relatively short periods of warmth. That's why I was a little surprised that the GBHs were even back. I guess they hunt field mammals and such when there's no open water.

I'd go take a look anyway -- and at least check out the terrain. I found the shortest path to this rookery by checking out the sat photos of the area on Google maps -- the stuff you can find on the web is sometimes astounding.